Water and its management is becoming not just a local but a global priority. The UN Rio+20 Declaration emphasises the need to establish a green economy as the means to achieving sustainable development while protecting and improving the world’s natural resources. Water is increasingly seen as a central plank of the green economy. It is embedded in all aspects of development – food security, health, and poverty reduction – and in sustaining economic growth in agriculture, industry, and energy generation.
GWP participated in the third Nile Basin Discourse Forum for the Equatorial Lakes region, 15-16 September 2011, Kampala, Uganda.
March 22, 2011, STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Today thousands of people mark World Water Day. The annual Stockholm Water Prize laureate will be announced. The official United Nations three-day event will culminate in Cape Town, South Africa. Since the first one in 1993, this day focuses attention on the importance of sustainably managing the world’s freshwater resources.
In 2012, GWP Southern Africa secured 1.3 million from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) through the harmonised donor fund for transboundary water management to implement a project mainstreaming climate change in the SADC water sector.
Sharing sub-regional experiences on water cooperation and learning about designing and conducting negotiations on transboundary water-related issues were the topics of a SADC/ UNESCO workshop to “Promote Cooperation and Conflict Prevention in Transboundary Water Resources” on 25-27 February, 2013 in Gaborone, Botswana.
The 3rd Council Meeting of the GWP Shaanxi was held on November 13, 2012 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. The theme of the meeting is to review the working progress and financial report since its founding; to modify the statutes and to elect the second council members.
The High-Level Roundtable on Water Resources Management System Development in China was organized by GWP China on April 20, 2012, in Beijing. The meeting aimed at establishing water management mechanisms with well-defined duties, rights and responsibilities, coordination mechanisms for the development of river basins, and facilitating stricter and better water management through the integrated water resources management approach.
How consolidated efforts can help to reach sustainable development in the region of the Mediterranean Sea to ensure preservation and improvement of the environment and the rich biodiversity, was discussed and presented at the Side Event “Challenges and Opportunities for a Mediterranean Green Growth.”
GWP Central Africa supported the Cameroonian Ministry of Economy and Planning to carry out a one-year survey of the proposed site of a deep-water port at Kribi. GWP Central Africa developed a forward-looking planning and decision-support tool to help ensure more efficient land use, to preserve the integrity of the port facilities, and to aid natural resources management and the preservation of vital ecosystems. This work shows how IWRM principles can be put into practice at the local level, as part of a major infrastructure project.
‘Closing the Knowledge Gap: Integrated Water Resources Management for Sustainable Agriculture’ was the theme of an international seminar in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 22-26, 2010, which sought to discuss strategies for developing comprehensive information and knowledge support systems in integrated water management for productive agriculture in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.